This space station paper model is the Federation Starbase 47Vanguard, based on the science fiction film Star Trek: The Motion Picture of the Star Trek series, the papercraft was created by MTK. Starbase 47 was an orbital starbase in operation by 2343 near a zone of Cardassian expansion, with responsibilities for starship design and construction.

In 2328, David Trotti traveled from Gamma Towles II to Starbase 47 on board a transport ship. This information was part of a passenger manifest recorded in the commercial transport database and reviewed by Lieutenant Commander Data in 2370.

In an alternate quantum reality visited by Worf in 2370, Starbase 47 was the object of covert surveillance by the Cardassian Union, who had reprogrammed the Argus Array to observe this, as well as Deep Space 5, the Iadara colony and the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards.

Vanguard was the name given to Starfleet Starbase 47. It was a Watchtower-class station constructed by the Starfleet Corps of Engineers between 2263 and 2265 in the Taurus Reach, a region beyond Federation space, between the Klingon Empire and the Tholian Assembly. It was declared fully operational on stardate 1271.4 under the command of Commodore Diego Reyes.

In 2266, Vanguard’s crewmembers worked in three duty shifts: Alpha shift was from 0700 to 1500 hours, Beta shift from 1500 to 2300 hours, and Gamma shift from 2300 to 0700 hours. Rear admiral Heihachiro Nogura assumed command of Vanguard after Reyes’ court martial.

In 2267, a Klingon fleet under Captain Kutal was immobilized by the Organians as it prepared to assault the station. Later that year, Vanguard suffered damage when attacked by the Shedai Wanderer.

Station specifications and layout:

Height: 921 meters

Width: 849 meters

Standard crew complement: 2,400

Standard duty shift complement: 800

Standard guest capacity: 1,200

Emergency guest capacity: 61,500

Power source: Mark IX matter/antimatter reactor

Defences: deflector shields

Armaments: 12 phaser/photon torpedo emplacements

In late 2268, experiments on Mirdonyae Artifacts in Vanguard’s secret laboratory, the Vault, drew the attention of the Tholians. Their history with the Shedai imprisoned within the artifacts was enough to provoke them into mustering an armada, consisting of approximately twenty percent of their active combat fleet, and heading to the station to destroy the Shedai before they escaped and enslaved them once more.

Admiral Nogura ordered an evacuation of all civilians and non-essential Starfleet personnel. To that end, he ordered every civilian ship within three days of Vanguard to assist in the evacuation. A small fleet of Starfleet vessels remained to defend the station. The fleet consisted of the USS Buenos Aires, USS Endeavour, USS Panama, USS Sagittarius and, at the last moment, the USS Enterprise.

Despite a valiant defence, Starfleet was outgunned five-to-one, and the Buenos Aires and Panama were destroyed. Vanguard was severely damaged and, after the Tholians ignored Nogura’s request for surrender, he ordered the fleet to retreat even though the station had not been fully evacuated. Cut off in the Vault, Lieutenant Ming Xiong activated the self destruct when the vengeful Shedai escaped from their containment. The resulting explosion obliterated Vanguard and wiped out the Shedai, it also destroyed most of what was left of the Tholian armada. Operation Vanguard was officially over. By 2270, the designation of “Starbase 47″ had been transferred to another facility near the Romulan Neutral Zone.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on Star Trek, and a sequel to the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V’Ger approaches Earth, destroying everything in its path. Admiral James T. Kirk assumes command of his previous starship – the recently refitted USS Enterprise – to lead it on a mission to save the planet and determine V’Ger’s origins.

A Starfleet monitoring station, Epsilon Nine, detects an alien force, hidden in a massive cloud of energy, moving through space towards Earth. The cloud destroys three of the Klingons’ new K’t’inga-class warships and the monitoring station en route. On Earth, the starship Enterprise is undergoing a major refit; her former Captain, James T. Kirk, has been promoted to Admiral and works in San Francisco as Chief of Starfleet Operations. Starfleet dispatches Enterprise to investigate the cloud entity as the ship is the only one in intercept range, requiring her new systems to be tested in transit.

Kirk takes command of the ship citing his experience, angering Captain Willard Decker, who had been overseeing the refit as its new commanding officer. Testing of Enterprise‘s new systems goes poorly; two officers, including the science officer, are killed by a malfunctioning transporter, and improperly calibrated engines almost destroy the ship. The tension between Kirk and Decker increases when the admiral demonstrates his unfamiliarity with Enterprise. Spock arrives as replacement science officer, explaining that while on his home world undergoing a ritual to purge all emotion, he felt a consciousness that he believes emanates from the cloud.

The Enterprise intercepts the energy cloud and is attacked by an alien vessel within. A probe appears on the bridge, attacks Spock and abducts the navigator, Ilia. She is replaced by a robotic doppelgänger, a probe sent by “V’Ger” to study the crew. Decker is distraught over the loss of Ilia, with whom he had a romantic history. He becomes troubled as he attempts to extract information from the doppelgänger, which has Ilia’s memories and feelings buried within. Spock takes a spacewalk to the alien vessel’s surface and attempts a telepathic mind meld with it. In doing so, he learns that the vessel is V’Ger itself, a living machine.

At the heart of the massive ship, V’Ger is revealed to be Voyager 6, a 20th-century Earth space probe believed lost. The damaged probe was found by an alien race of living machines that interpreted its programming as instructions to learn all that can be learned, and return that information to its creator. The machines upgraded the probe to fulfill its mission, and on its journey the probe gathered so much knowledge that it achieved consciousness. Spock realizes that V’Ger lacks the ability to give itself a focus other than its original mission; having learned what it could on its journey home, it finds its existence empty and without purpose. Before transmitting all its information, V’Ger insists that the Creator come in person to finish the sequence. Realizing that the machine wants to merge with its creator, Decker offers himself to V’Ger; he merges with the Ilia probe and V’Ger, creating a new form of life that disappears into another dimension. With Earth saved, Kirk directs Enterprise out to space for future missions.